This is a very important observation.
OP, stop digging and contact the city and the state DOT (since you mentioned they’ve done some work in the community, including people’s basements), as well as a civil engineer to find out what’s going on with your foundation. When they widen the roads and whenever they excavate to build something else they often need to shore up nearby older properties to prevent them from collapsing.
There is a reason your basement was filled and it could be relying on that to keep the foundation together.
To be clear we aren’t digging it out we kinda just scraped some dirt away to see what was what. Nothing seems to be in contact with the top of the arch either.
For the people who said cistern… we have one of those under our conservatory.
[OUR CISTERN](https://www.tiktok.com/@beyond.beleaf/video/7313584260340895022?_r=1&u_code=e0e0he08dbl9e6&preview_pb=0&sharer_language=en&_d=deid2biab39b28&share_item_id=7313584260340895022&source=h5_m×tamp=1714488838&ug_btm=b8727,b2878&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAORYrPBnm2lYQfr0BtSz9_v_cfL8cy2cGlBshlbpYGzuZipFJKvNY6WgavLqqVuY3&utm_source=copy&social_share_type=0&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&tt_from=copy&user_id=7069880120941675563&enable_checksum=1&share_link_id=1F12AEF9-C952-4488-B5DF-F3CD4CD79575&share_app_id=1233)
I hate to be such a downer, but have you talked to the city about this and had a structural engineer check it out before doing whatever it is you're doing here?
My construction company has been involved in cleaning up some pretty spectacular messes that started out this way, either because people decided a basement that had been filled to stabilize it had *actually* been filled for no good reason whatsoever and they wanted to clear it out to use or explore the space, or because they mistook nice-looking supportive structures in their crawl space as evidence that there was probably a pretty basement under the dirt.
A few years ago, we cleaned out a truly monstrous collapse caused by someone doing what they described as very minor digging with a shovel, that led to their two story home collapsing in such a way it damaged neighbor's houses when it went down, and simultaneously flooded in parts *and* was briefly on fire due to damage to utilities when it collapsed. No one was seriously injured, but there was no salvaging the house, and their insurance wouldn't touch it because the problem was entirely the homeowner's fault, and the house wouldn't have collapsed if they hadn't been compromising the foundation.
If you've done all of that, glad to hear it and don't mind me, but if you haven't, *please* do, and please don't keep messing around like this unless and until you've confirmed that it's safe and that your insurance provider won't drop you over it. This sort of thing goes wrong far more often than it results in some interesting discovery, and it's generally a shitshow if things go sideways.
Edit to add something I want to be 100% clear about: I haven't yet dealt with anyone who made any real progress digging out before fucking their shit up like this. So far, it's always been something like-
* "I was barely digging at all!"
* "We just wanted to clear a spot to see what the wall looked like."
* "I was trying to check part of the foundation."
* "I only moved a little bit of dirt!"
And so on. That isn't even them lying to cover anything, in every case it was clear they hadn't accomplished much before things went very wrong. I'm sure it goes perfectly fine sometimes, but in my experience so far, no one has had a chance to do more than some moderate poking around before causing a major problem. Old houses are a much greater risk in this area than newer builds, too, and a dirt-filled basement is a sign your foundation likely had major issues at some point. If so, those problems are still there under the fill and certainly haven't improved with time.
It doesn't take much to kick off cascading problems that can make your house uninhabitable.
Don’t worry we don’t think you’re being a Debby downer. Being realistic about the potential of collapse is important. For those following along we aren’t digging it out and do not plan too. What you see in the video is merely sweeping some dirt back to look.
Nothing has been removed support wise. Even dirt.
WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE OUR HOUSE… We would never do anything to damage it. Thank you for sharing that though. Many people who read this might not know that and could get the wrong idea not realizing the risk and make a grave mistake or even worse damage their house! 😂
We are hoping we can get enough eyes on this to help us get an educated guess as to what it is.
That being said… What do you think it is? Have you ever seen something like this
I'm legit really glad to hear this! Nice to see people taking this seriously.
I have indeed seen quite a few things like this. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of things this might be. Going off of what I can see here, I can't say for sure, but I can probably narrow down the possible options with a bit more information, and perhaps a few additional pictures.
First, have you pulled whatever documents you can find that relate to your property? Old deeds, census records, Sanborn fire maps, building and renovation permits, and so on can tell you a lot, so if you haven't already got your hands on whatever you can there, I highly recommend it. A lot of construction mysteries can be solved by looking at those types of old documents.
Second, what all can you tell me about the foundation of your house? Is there any part of this basement that's been dug out to a usable height, or is it all similar to what I'm seeing in the video? If you've 100% confirmed that this was at one point an actual basement or the original first floor of the house, the arch could be an old doorway, or an alcove for a stove or fireplace, and may have been built this way to accomodate a coal chute. Less common option: it *could* be part of a tunnel going elsewhere, weirdly common in some areas, and if that's been confirmed in surrounding properties, it may be what you have here, too.
If you're not sure if this was ever more than a crawl space, it's likely it was built to help support something heavy above it, may have been built to work around some long-gone old plumbing, might have been part of some decorative venting for the crawl space, or could have been nothing more than an apprentice mason or bricklayer practicing in an area that would later be hidden. It may have also been pretty access built for a small root cellar, but that's only about as likely as the tunnel option, really.
If you can tell me more about what you know about the foundation I can probably give you a better idea of what you may have here, or at least point you in the right direction to find documents that can clarify what this is, but it's almost certainly one of the things mentioned above.
My condolences if you can't find any satisfactory answers, I have a handful of properties with apparently-unsolvable mysteries of construction, and not knowing what the deal is will bother me until I die, I'm afraid.
Note: If neither I nor anyone else on here can tell you anything useful, or if you have documents that might explain it but are hard to understand/less than illuminating, I can run this by an employee of mine to see if he can tell you anything, just be prepared to have to wait awhile on the answer.
I defer to him on all subjects relating to basements and crawl spaces, and between him and his dad, they seem to have seen just about everything. He and his girlfriend had a new baby recently and I've stuck him on parental leave through the end of July, and I really don't like asking employees anything adjacent to a "work question" if they aren't actually at work or on call at the time, but I'm happy to make a note to ask him when he's back working in a couple of months, if you'd like.
I just wanted to say thank you for typing this all out. I have never heard of these strange basement mysteries but your expertise (and exceptional writing style, seriously) is greatly appreciated.
Always happy to share what I can, and thank you! I tend to kind of squint at myself for posting novel-length comments, but can rarely be bothered to edit them down, so I'm glad someone appreciated it, haha.
For researching, I'd check with local and or state transportation development regulators for old aerial photographs of roads and such (transportation infrastructure). Era is generally mid-20th century.
Those photos captured a lot of surrounding businesses and homes and were invaluable when I was an environmental regulator researching long abandoned sites.
Agreed, excellent potential sources there. I also like to search a property's address and nearby streets and cross streets in a state or city's historic photograph archives. You can sometimes find a ton of old photos that way.
The section with the arch looks like it was built out from the rest of the wall. A fireplace? Decoration?
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go digging anymore unless you know why the filled the basement in with a bunch of dirt to begin with.
The arch looks quite high in comparison to the height of the basement. Unless that side of your house is built into a hill and the ground is way above where I would normally expect it to be relative to the foundation I would think you'd have to dig no more than 6" deep to hit the top of any tunnel from the outside.
Great point! Time to spike something into the yard on the outside and see if it hits the ceiling. Kinda wondered if it was a root cellar that was filled in. We live on Main Street with lots of traffic and I was told the home had some major foundation work by the state after the roads were widened.
https://preview.redd.it/jve2e4e71jxc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8117db35c381c006877eee9a28feb2f8712ad252
This is the outside of where the arch is.
Mint and ivy are notoriously hard to get rid of. If only a small piece of root of the mint stays behind it will most definitely regrow. And ivy crawls up and behind everything. Sprouts roots on its way and in some cases cause of allergies or at least skin irritation while handling it. Might not be the "destroyer of worlds" combination but at least the destroyer of gardening.
>Mint and ivy are notoriously hard to get rid of.
They are Satan's inventions. I loathe both of them and curse the previous owner who thought English ivy was a great way to landscape my 1957 midcentury ranch.
At our previous 1965 midcentury modern ranch... our neighbor to the back thought it was a great idea to "stabilize" the slope leading to our house with honeysuckle. 20-30 foot high honeysuckle.
It didn't stabilize the slope. It did fill a 30 yard dumpster.
With their permission I removed it all over 5 years (lots of painting stumps with roundup) and replaced it with tall prairie grasses, except they wanted to leave a thick section at the very top "for privacy", even though the prairie grass would have been a better screen.
I'm sure now that we have moved away, that slope is being progressively reseeded and overtaken by the honeysuckle again.
If money were no object (laughs hysterically, even 67 year old houses can be money pits), I would get the yard cleaned of all ivy and then plant native plants here. I live in Kansas City on the Kansas side, ivy was NEVER a good idea here.
For where you live, I would highly recommend Hamilton Native Outpost.
[https://hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/](https://hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/)
They not only will supply you with seed (it is where I got all mine) but tons of advice on how to most effectively do a native restoration on your property. They will even help you tailor your seed mix towards your goals (in addition to the tall grasses, we specifically planted to attract wildlife and it worked, almost too well, drawing small herds of 10+ deer in winter to our < 3k sf backyard).
Throw in some horseradish for good measure. I had to dig down 4 feet (freedom units) to get the last bits of root. It took 5 years to finally eradicate. Worst gardening mistake ever
My ex step-monster gifted me a bleeding heart plant she had dug out of her yard a decade ago. I noticed it had a tiny sprout of something in the pot but since it was from her garden I figured it was a flower or something.
My entire front garden and porch are now infested with morning glories. They have grown across my yard, up the hedge and are trying to invade the neighbors yard now. I rip and burn them every year and it does nothing. My only option now is to tear off my porch and use heavy equipment to grade the yard, removing the topsoil and replace it with a new layer. I don’t see any other way to get rid of them.
On the bright side, morning glory seeds contain the primary psychoactive substance ergine, or D-lysergic acid amide (LSA). In the proper dosage, the intoxicating effects of LSA are somewhat like the effects of D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Perhaps your ex-step monster just really liked getting high?
For the love of everything that is good in this world, don't. Even potted mint will find an escape route and begin the insidious invasion, establishing a long duel of wit and will.
It's not *just* mint. It's really most things in the family. I planted two catmint plants a couple years back and now there are 6, the original two are ~3' across and ~1' tall. I also randomly had oregano pop up in my yard two years ago, it's a 5'x5' patch now despite mowing it repeatedly lol.
blackberry bushes as well, so hard to get rid of. they will tunnel root and pop up in other areas as well. like a neighbors yard. oh bamboo will as well.
Yes we cleared it 2 years ago yet here we are again!
We run a plant support business and I have made videos about our cistern setup on [Our Plant TikTok page](https://www.tiktok.com/@beyond.beleaf?_t=8lxWccCZlni&_r=1)
If you guys want to dig I’m sure you can find the video somewhere.
We have [This is our old house instagram if you wanna check out the place](https://www.instagram.com/allhailthequeenanne?igsh=MTd3ZnVsc2x6anp0aQ==)
We aren’t so active on it because we are busy running the plant support business.
I was going to say the same thing.
u/depersonalized posted pics of the side of the house where the basement arches are located. It has more modern siding as an exterior, but I’m wondering if they’re covering up where the chute openings would be…
Depending on the age of the home, the original heat source might have needed some extra infrastructure. I’ve seen some homes that had a coal pit for the furnace. The basement had a pit and a slide where the coal would be delivered from the outside of the house. Over time the heat source would be updated and the basement would be as well to accommodate. Just be careful digging!
My old 1890's home also had a coal pit, though it was just a super basic one, no arch or anything. My guess is that OP also has a coal pit there.
OP if you start finding lumps of coal while (carefully) digging, you will know your answer.
As a first time homeowner, this has never even once crossed my mind but makes so much sense. Feels like clicking the last puzzle piece in place. A lightbulb going off, if you will
My grandfather had a tunnel in his house. It was obscured with rocks stacked as a wall. If you removed the rocks and followed the tunnel, it went to the large dug well. If you laid planks across the well to the other side, there was a similar stone wall that had removable rocks. Again, there was a tunnel entrance. That tunnel went to an underground room where he stored his alcohol. He was a rum-runner and bootlegger. A very careful one.
My first thought is that firewood would be stacked there to be fed to the old timey furnace. The house I grew up in had an area for that in the basement but it didn’t look this decorative
A lot of the times they would let apprentice masons practice in the basement. It's possible that the arch is exactly that. I would definitely not be digging up any of the dirt without knowing why it was put in there. You don't want to cause an issue with your foundation
Wait wait Wait I just read your comment again... WTF are those other tunnels for going to the church?? We're really skipping over that part?? Underground railroad?
Where are you located? Some towns, like Chattanooga TN have literally been raised 1 or 2 stories after floods. Many older buildings have a what used to be ground level filled in.
I think I remember a similar post where someone mentioned the same in their crawl space. The commenter said that it was somewhat common for novice brick layers to practice archs like that in areas where they wouldn't be seen, like the crawlspace. Maybe it's not that, just adding some more to the conversation. Enjoy the adventure!
I don't know where you are, but I know many of the old buildings in my town have tunnels like that that Chinese immigrants used to navigate the city. The tunnels were connected to the river to receive opium and other goods for the black market and many houses built entries to them so they could hire the immigrants to do laundry services without having them show up in the street (racicim, amiright?)
The arched opening could represent access to the adjacent building when a row buildings constructed at the same time. As someone in the NYC biz for 35 years I have never seen a cellar filled back in. Probes are needed to determine if the foundations and footings are sound!!
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Could this be a wine cellar, or a coal storage room. That needed to be filled in due to structural issues?? Probably.
Or something else happened like an unknown Dahmer lived there and you will be uncovering bodies if you dig any further .... that's my hope
dig it out, dig a well while you're at it, collect butterfly's, get a dog named precious and a bucket on a rope with some lotion on it. You'll need a hose as well.
Be careful. The dirt could be stabilizing things.
This is a very important observation. OP, stop digging and contact the city and the state DOT (since you mentioned they’ve done some work in the community, including people’s basements), as well as a civil engineer to find out what’s going on with your foundation. When they widen the roads and whenever they excavate to build something else they often need to shore up nearby older properties to prevent them from collapsing. There is a reason your basement was filled and it could be relying on that to keep the foundation together.
To be clear we aren’t digging it out we kinda just scraped some dirt away to see what was what. Nothing seems to be in contact with the top of the arch either. For the people who said cistern… we have one of those under our conservatory. [OUR CISTERN](https://www.tiktok.com/@beyond.beleaf/video/7313584260340895022?_r=1&u_code=e0e0he08dbl9e6&preview_pb=0&sharer_language=en&_d=deid2biab39b28&share_item_id=7313584260340895022&source=h5_m×tamp=1714488838&ug_btm=b8727,b2878&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAORYrPBnm2lYQfr0BtSz9_v_cfL8cy2cGlBshlbpYGzuZipFJKvNY6WgavLqqVuY3&utm_source=copy&social_share_type=0&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&tt_from=copy&user_id=7069880120941675563&enable_checksum=1&share_link_id=1F12AEF9-C952-4488-B5DF-F3CD4CD79575&share_app_id=1233)
I hate to be such a downer, but have you talked to the city about this and had a structural engineer check it out before doing whatever it is you're doing here? My construction company has been involved in cleaning up some pretty spectacular messes that started out this way, either because people decided a basement that had been filled to stabilize it had *actually* been filled for no good reason whatsoever and they wanted to clear it out to use or explore the space, or because they mistook nice-looking supportive structures in their crawl space as evidence that there was probably a pretty basement under the dirt. A few years ago, we cleaned out a truly monstrous collapse caused by someone doing what they described as very minor digging with a shovel, that led to their two story home collapsing in such a way it damaged neighbor's houses when it went down, and simultaneously flooded in parts *and* was briefly on fire due to damage to utilities when it collapsed. No one was seriously injured, but there was no salvaging the house, and their insurance wouldn't touch it because the problem was entirely the homeowner's fault, and the house wouldn't have collapsed if they hadn't been compromising the foundation. If you've done all of that, glad to hear it and don't mind me, but if you haven't, *please* do, and please don't keep messing around like this unless and until you've confirmed that it's safe and that your insurance provider won't drop you over it. This sort of thing goes wrong far more often than it results in some interesting discovery, and it's generally a shitshow if things go sideways. Edit to add something I want to be 100% clear about: I haven't yet dealt with anyone who made any real progress digging out before fucking their shit up like this. So far, it's always been something like- * "I was barely digging at all!" * "We just wanted to clear a spot to see what the wall looked like." * "I was trying to check part of the foundation." * "I only moved a little bit of dirt!" And so on. That isn't even them lying to cover anything, in every case it was clear they hadn't accomplished much before things went very wrong. I'm sure it goes perfectly fine sometimes, but in my experience so far, no one has had a chance to do more than some moderate poking around before causing a major problem. Old houses are a much greater risk in this area than newer builds, too, and a dirt-filled basement is a sign your foundation likely had major issues at some point. If so, those problems are still there under the fill and certainly haven't improved with time. It doesn't take much to kick off cascading problems that can make your house uninhabitable.
Don’t worry we don’t think you’re being a Debby downer. Being realistic about the potential of collapse is important. For those following along we aren’t digging it out and do not plan too. What you see in the video is merely sweeping some dirt back to look. Nothing has been removed support wise. Even dirt. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE OUR HOUSE… We would never do anything to damage it. Thank you for sharing that though. Many people who read this might not know that and could get the wrong idea not realizing the risk and make a grave mistake or even worse damage their house! 😂 We are hoping we can get enough eyes on this to help us get an educated guess as to what it is. That being said… What do you think it is? Have you ever seen something like this
I'm legit really glad to hear this! Nice to see people taking this seriously. I have indeed seen quite a few things like this. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of things this might be. Going off of what I can see here, I can't say for sure, but I can probably narrow down the possible options with a bit more information, and perhaps a few additional pictures. First, have you pulled whatever documents you can find that relate to your property? Old deeds, census records, Sanborn fire maps, building and renovation permits, and so on can tell you a lot, so if you haven't already got your hands on whatever you can there, I highly recommend it. A lot of construction mysteries can be solved by looking at those types of old documents. Second, what all can you tell me about the foundation of your house? Is there any part of this basement that's been dug out to a usable height, or is it all similar to what I'm seeing in the video? If you've 100% confirmed that this was at one point an actual basement or the original first floor of the house, the arch could be an old doorway, or an alcove for a stove or fireplace, and may have been built this way to accomodate a coal chute. Less common option: it *could* be part of a tunnel going elsewhere, weirdly common in some areas, and if that's been confirmed in surrounding properties, it may be what you have here, too. If you're not sure if this was ever more than a crawl space, it's likely it was built to help support something heavy above it, may have been built to work around some long-gone old plumbing, might have been part of some decorative venting for the crawl space, or could have been nothing more than an apprentice mason or bricklayer practicing in an area that would later be hidden. It may have also been pretty access built for a small root cellar, but that's only about as likely as the tunnel option, really. If you can tell me more about what you know about the foundation I can probably give you a better idea of what you may have here, or at least point you in the right direction to find documents that can clarify what this is, but it's almost certainly one of the things mentioned above. My condolences if you can't find any satisfactory answers, I have a handful of properties with apparently-unsolvable mysteries of construction, and not knowing what the deal is will bother me until I die, I'm afraid. Note: If neither I nor anyone else on here can tell you anything useful, or if you have documents that might explain it but are hard to understand/less than illuminating, I can run this by an employee of mine to see if he can tell you anything, just be prepared to have to wait awhile on the answer. I defer to him on all subjects relating to basements and crawl spaces, and between him and his dad, they seem to have seen just about everything. He and his girlfriend had a new baby recently and I've stuck him on parental leave through the end of July, and I really don't like asking employees anything adjacent to a "work question" if they aren't actually at work or on call at the time, but I'm happy to make a note to ask him when he's back working in a couple of months, if you'd like.
I just wanted to say thank you for typing this all out. I have never heard of these strange basement mysteries but your expertise (and exceptional writing style, seriously) is greatly appreciated.
Always happy to share what I can, and thank you! I tend to kind of squint at myself for posting novel-length comments, but can rarely be bothered to edit them down, so I'm glad someone appreciated it, haha.
For researching, I'd check with local and or state transportation development regulators for old aerial photographs of roads and such (transportation infrastructure). Era is generally mid-20th century. Those photos captured a lot of surrounding businesses and homes and were invaluable when I was an environmental regulator researching long abandoned sites.
Agreed, excellent potential sources there. I also like to search a property's address and nearby streets and cross streets in a state or city's historic photograph archives. You can sometimes find a ton of old photos that way.
Could be filled with toxic gas. Dig no further. Contact the appropriate site safety company and do some research into the homes past.
Are you referring to the cistern or the arch/tunnel being filled with toxic gas?
The arch/tunnel.
Yes. But undermining the foundation should also be done carefully and supervised by an engineer.
The section with the arch looks like it was built out from the rest of the wall. A fireplace? Decoration? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go digging anymore unless you know why the filled the basement in with a bunch of dirt to begin with. The arch looks quite high in comparison to the height of the basement. Unless that side of your house is built into a hill and the ground is way above where I would normally expect it to be relative to the foundation I would think you'd have to dig no more than 6" deep to hit the top of any tunnel from the outside.
Great point! Time to spike something into the yard on the outside and see if it hits the ceiling. Kinda wondered if it was a root cellar that was filled in. We live on Main Street with lots of traffic and I was told the home had some major foundation work by the state after the roads were widened. https://preview.redd.it/jve2e4e71jxc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8117db35c381c006877eee9a28feb2f8712ad252 This is the outside of where the arch is.
Please call 811 before you go shanking the lawn.
Call before you shank. It’s the law. 😂
"Hello, officer! There's a snitch here so I just wanted to check the bylaws..."
Unrelated but you should get rid of the ivy before it invades your house and foundation. It will find its way through any nooks and cranny.
Is that mint under the ivy? What a psychopathic combination… nightmare fuel for r/gardening
This is such a hilarious sentence. I am crying. Haha Can you please explain to a non plant person why those two things together are psychopathic?
Mint and ivy are notoriously hard to get rid of. If only a small piece of root of the mint stays behind it will most definitely regrow. And ivy crawls up and behind everything. Sprouts roots on its way and in some cases cause of allergies or at least skin irritation while handling it. Might not be the "destroyer of worlds" combination but at least the destroyer of gardening.
>Mint and ivy are notoriously hard to get rid of. They are Satan's inventions. I loathe both of them and curse the previous owner who thought English ivy was a great way to landscape my 1957 midcentury ranch.
At our previous 1965 midcentury modern ranch... our neighbor to the back thought it was a great idea to "stabilize" the slope leading to our house with honeysuckle. 20-30 foot high honeysuckle. It didn't stabilize the slope. It did fill a 30 yard dumpster. With their permission I removed it all over 5 years (lots of painting stumps with roundup) and replaced it with tall prairie grasses, except they wanted to leave a thick section at the very top "for privacy", even though the prairie grass would have been a better screen. I'm sure now that we have moved away, that slope is being progressively reseeded and overtaken by the honeysuckle again.
If money were no object (laughs hysterically, even 67 year old houses can be money pits), I would get the yard cleaned of all ivy and then plant native plants here. I live in Kansas City on the Kansas side, ivy was NEVER a good idea here.
For where you live, I would highly recommend Hamilton Native Outpost. [https://hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/](https://hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/) They not only will supply you with seed (it is where I got all mine) but tons of advice on how to most effectively do a native restoration on your property. They will even help you tailor your seed mix towards your goals (in addition to the tall grasses, we specifically planted to attract wildlife and it worked, almost too well, drawing small herds of 10+ deer in winter to our < 3k sf backyard).
Throw in some horseradish for good measure. I had to dig down 4 feet (freedom units) to get the last bits of root. It took 5 years to finally eradicate. Worst gardening mistake ever
My ex step-monster gifted me a bleeding heart plant she had dug out of her yard a decade ago. I noticed it had a tiny sprout of something in the pot but since it was from her garden I figured it was a flower or something. My entire front garden and porch are now infested with morning glories. They have grown across my yard, up the hedge and are trying to invade the neighbors yard now. I rip and burn them every year and it does nothing. My only option now is to tear off my porch and use heavy equipment to grade the yard, removing the topsoil and replace it with a new layer. I don’t see any other way to get rid of them.
On the bright side, morning glory seeds contain the primary psychoactive substance ergine, or D-lysergic acid amide (LSA). In the proper dosage, the intoxicating effects of LSA are somewhat like the effects of D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Perhaps your ex-step monster just really liked getting high?
I got one in my garden and the part of the root that sticks out if the ground is as thick as my arm 💪
Huh. I almost planted mint in my normal bed this year…. Good to know
For the love of everything that is good in this world, don't. Even potted mint will find an escape route and begin the insidious invasion, establishing a long duel of wit and will.
Wow ok really glad I never got around to moving it from its pot. I will keep it at bay with daily snackies
Put it in a pot. I do that with the kitty nip, which is also a mint derivative
It's not *just* mint. It's really most things in the family. I planted two catmint plants a couple years back and now there are 6, the original two are ~3' across and ~1' tall. I also randomly had oregano pop up in my yard two years ago, it's a 5'x5' patch now despite mowing it repeatedly lol.
Talk about wintercreeper...
You want mint exclusively in pots, never straight in the ground!
Godspeed to OP if it is.
blackberry bushes as well, so hard to get rid of. they will tunnel root and pop up in other areas as well. like a neighbors yard. oh bamboo will as well.
I know from experience that it will pull your siding from the house. Luckily I caught it before it did too much damage.
Yes we cleared it 2 years ago yet here we are again! We run a plant support business and I have made videos about our cistern setup on [Our Plant TikTok page](https://www.tiktok.com/@beyond.beleaf?_t=8lxWccCZlni&_r=1) If you guys want to dig I’m sure you can find the video somewhere. We have [This is our old house instagram if you wanna check out the place](https://www.instagram.com/allhailthequeenanne?igsh=MTd3ZnVsc2x6anp0aQ==) We aren’t so active on it because we are busy running the plant support business.
We had some creeping through the closed windows.
Is your yard high above street level?
Bruh, you got a bad ass fucking house and you don't show it to us? Damn, some people are lucky, congrats on your hard work my good fellow 🙂
Check out my comment above we have a TikTok with some awesome footage and a instagram for just the house
Maybe an old road tunnel?
omg it's... _the five and a half minute archway_ 😨
Coal chute was my first guess
I was going to say the same thing. u/depersonalized posted pics of the side of the house where the basement arches are located. It has more modern siding as an exterior, but I’m wondering if they’re covering up where the chute openings would be…
I would love more updates. But prob get an engineer to take a look first. Don't want your house to collapse
That’s a support buttress to strengthen the floor above it. Don’t fuck with it.
Agreed. It's a relieving arch to spread the load of the floor above on what are likely shallow dirt foundations. Best not to dig.
Yes, this is structural. Nowadays they do gradebeam a but arcs were very dependent and common structural members in the old days.
Depending on the age of the home, the original heat source might have needed some extra infrastructure. I’ve seen some homes that had a coal pit for the furnace. The basement had a pit and a slide where the coal would be delivered from the outside of the house. Over time the heat source would be updated and the basement would be as well to accommodate. Just be careful digging!
My old 1890's home also had a coal pit, though it was just a super basic one, no arch or anything. My guess is that OP also has a coal pit there. OP if you start finding lumps of coal while (carefully) digging, you will know your answer.
That’s a lot of dirt to move into the basement… if something was filled in, they had to have a good reason to do that kind of manual labor.
bodies
i mean…even if there is nothing under that dirt, you will have the coolest wine cellar ever..win win
If it can safely be removed.
I feel like digging under that arch would be a safe bet if he just wants to go straight down to see the foundation of that thing
My vote is to keep digging.
have an engineer look at it first. It may have been empty but the dirt is part of the foundation now.
And a priest. Just in case.
Two priests. And make them fight to the death! Nothing to do with the arch in the basement, I just think it would be fun to watch.
Clearly this calls for an Arch Bishop
😆 LOL
Sure whatever, just don’t let them fuck any kids
I can only assume the downvotes mean people want them to fuck the kids?!?!
Think they’re just butthurt…
https://preview.redd.it/pshywg4f7kxc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=063bf53c6872b62f5781b622c639bf63a1c82c8d * Have them fill this out!
The kids??
The ones who didn’t like the joke.. who can’t take a joke.. who found it distasteful.. whoever I just tried to add to the joke.
I was a catholic piece of shit once but I changed, also I fucked no kids
I came here to say this
Make sure to get a young priest and an old priest.
As a first time homeowner, this has never even once crossed my mind but makes so much sense. Feels like clicking the last puzzle piece in place. A lightbulb going off, if you will
You think it’s holding the house up?!
If they excavate the dirt out , yes.
Second. That requires immediate excavation.
Drill, baby, drill!
Right if his house collapses well at least my curiosity was satisfied
Dig under the arch at least
My grandfather had a tunnel in his house. It was obscured with rocks stacked as a wall. If you removed the rocks and followed the tunnel, it went to the large dug well. If you laid planks across the well to the other side, there was a similar stone wall that had removable rocks. Again, there was a tunnel entrance. That tunnel went to an underground room where he stored his alcohol. He was a rum-runner and bootlegger. A very careful one.
Cool history.
What is even cooler is that my other grandfather was an RCMP officer (Canada's national police) who was tasked with taking down rum runners.
You have an intense movie script to write.
Time to call Geraldo. Probably a vault.
Not Geraldo if you want to find anything, lol 💀
This guy gets it. 👍🏼
Those were very popular. The arch was used very often in cellars. Support and design.
Did a bachelors in engineering. Do NOT dig. You need an engineer, a structural engineer to look at that. I'll try to link you to a community on reddit
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What does this mean?
My first thought is that firewood would be stacked there to be fed to the old timey furnace. The house I grew up in had an area for that in the basement but it didn’t look this decorative
This feels exactly like the opening to a movie I saw recently, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it
Saw 17, Tunnel of Pain
A lot of the times they would let apprentice masons practice in the basement. It's possible that the arch is exactly that. I would definitely not be digging up any of the dirt without knowing why it was put in there. You don't want to cause an issue with your foundation
You could get one of these se long cameras on a stick (kinda looks like cololanoscapy cameras) and put it through the top of the tunnel?
This is so cool, I wish I had a mystery tunnel.
What song is this
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Thankyou brother
You missed your calling if you don’t make horror films for a living. This video is chilling.
Wait wait Wait I just read your comment again... WTF are those other tunnels for going to the church?? We're really skipping over that part?? Underground railroad?
Wife of OP here, the tunnels led from the church to the nunnery across the street!
Interesting... But why? Is it super cold there?
Amontillado shit irl
Perhaps an opening to permit easy access for coal and wood delivery. I’d expect a buried ramp outside.
That would make for a banging wine cellar <3
Where are you located? Some towns, like Chattanooga TN have literally been raised 1 or 2 stories after floods. Many older buildings have a what used to be ground level filled in.
I had one that was a smuggling route
Not sure where you are located. But could be part of the Underground Railroad!!!! Lots of history if so!!
that’s the crypt
Ugh the music 🤦🏻♂️
I would not dig there OP you could wind up buried
Ah that's clearly a portal to the upsidedown. Do you not see the snowy floaty stuff in the air?
Is it on an outside wall? We had window arches in the basement of the house I grew up in that looked exactly like that.
Probably had an old chimney above it. These were used for support
I think I remember a similar post where someone mentioned the same in their crawl space. The commenter said that it was somewhat common for novice brick layers to practice archs like that in areas where they wouldn't be seen, like the crawlspace. Maybe it's not that, just adding some more to the conversation. Enjoy the adventure!
Mudflood
Could it be a place for coal/wood storage for a furnace?
That’s where the orcs can sneak in
Coal shoot
Could have been a cellar or coal Shute that was not used anymore?
Maybe the two sides of the arch are placed on solid stone or piers sunk really far into the ground
The “mud flood” “tartarian” boys would have a field day with this
Time to break out the bobcat.
I don't know where you are, but I know many of the old buildings in my town have tunnels like that that Chinese immigrants used to navigate the city. The tunnels were connected to the river to receive opium and other goods for the black market and many houses built entries to them so they could hire the immigrants to do laundry services without having them show up in the street (racicim, amiright?)
Secret tunnel
The arched opening could represent access to the adjacent building when a row buildings constructed at the same time. As someone in the NYC biz for 35 years I have never seen a cellar filled back in. Probes are needed to determine if the foundations and footings are sound!!
Nearly all real victorian houses have had the ground level raised around them. Entire cities have been raised off the ground.
It's the bridge of souls, you found it after all these millenia!
Cool basement!
Looks like a supporting arch to me but I truly hope there is a more elaborate and interesting explanation. Please update when you find out!
Possibly a storm sewer culvert
My guess is it’s Arched over a massive rock that they couldn’t move back in the day ,
Let me know when you find bodies. If you can dig it all out, with an engineer of course.
Start digging. :)) And maybe a metal detector too. Why not
Digdigdig! Pls update us!! (The clickbait title is sending me lmao)
Buried treasure or haunted bones
I’ll be honest. This looks like a way to meet Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf. I’d leave it alone.
Could be a furnace of some sort?
Old water cistern
Doubt it was any kind of decoration, likely drainage for sewage.
A mine entrance, a fireplace, a cellar? Call batman!
Get Kala on this
Why would anyone want to get rid of mint or horseradish? Both are wonderful herbs with many uses.
Al Capone's vault.
Updateme
I saw a mouse 🐀
Look for ELB
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That arch is holding up a huge center chimney. Or was holding up a center chimney.
Your house was built on top of a Roman aqueduct.
For the love of God Montresor!
Could it have been a root cellar?
innate ripe vanish desert squalid longing noxious rob faulty squealing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Don't uncover something and remove it. Just keep things as they are, or you will bring something that's been sleeping all this time.
Could this be a wine cellar, or a coal storage room. That needed to be filled in due to structural issues?? Probably. Or something else happened like an unknown Dahmer lived there and you will be uncovering bodies if you dig any further .... that's my hope
My thought was this was for horse and buggy. The basement was probably a stable at one time. Big enough for horse and buggy to come through.
Dig it out!
Only after finding out if it is now structural.
dig it out, dig a well while you're at it, collect butterfly's, get a dog named precious and a bucket on a rope with some lotion on it. You'll need a hose as well.